Leadership

Lavish DDDA expenses mean report must be published - FG

09.03.2010
Fine Gael has called on Environment Minister John Gormley TD to publish the report on the Dublin Docklands Development Authority (DDDA), following media reports yesterday that revealed the agency had run up a bill of €600,000 on travel and lavish expenses.

According to FG environment spokesman Phil Hogan TD, it is “disturbing” that Minister Gormley has still not yet published the report he commissioned from the authority’s new Chief Executive Professor Niamh Brennan into its planning activities, and that he has no plans to conduct an investigation into governance and conflicts of interest at the authority.

“John Gormley’s credibility is dwindling each day he refuses to publish the Brennan Report,” Hogan said.

“It is one month and three days since the report landed on the Minister’s desk and his arguments that he has to wait for the Attorney General to analyse it do not hold water after 31 days.

“Considering the latest accounts of extravagance, from caviar to business flights to lavish banquets, surely the Minister can no longer adopt his head-in-the-sand attitude.

“The same is true of Minister Gormley’s attitude to the issues of finance, procurement and conflict of interest that are separate to what’s in the Brennan Report,” Hogan added.

“These matters need to be investigated separately but, instead of confirming that this would occur, the Minister insisted that he has no plans to do so.

“The cosy relationship between Anglo Irish Bank and the DDDA is at the heart of this whole sorry mess and Minister Gormley’s refusal to deal with it can only lead to the conclusion that a whitewash is on the cards,” Hogan claimed.